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It’s three in the afternoon, the spiraling-down time when office workers, housewives, and lots of young people on summer school-break find themselves hankering for a sugary snack or maybe just a nice nap in a soft bed.

But not at 1940 N. Monroe Street in early June. Not in the two spacious practice rooms of the Tallahassee Ballet. Not where the students enrolled in the company’s two-week Turning Pointe Series Intensive Workshop are dancing full-out across the floor or listening for the beat in a Tchaikovsky waltz.

Here, with classes that start at 9 a.m. and continue through 3:30 p.m., the dancers will only break for a short lunch eaten while sprawled in splits or draped across a well-worn sofa. Then it is back to the studios where classical ballet, Pilates, pointe variations (dances with toe shoes) and contemporary movement are taught.

And the eager students, ranging in age from 11 to 17 are as enthusiastic as outfielders trying out for a Seminoles spot.

The comparison is apt. As with other athletes, to become a professional dancer, one should be young, incredibly strong, able to perform a number of roles, and with a dedication bordering on a religious mission. And just as with baseball, soccer, or football elite, it takes years and years of practice. Oh, and another necessity, dancers must be consummate artists as well.

Tyrone Brooks, the Artistic Director of the Tallahassee Ballet has brought in two exceptional guest teachers for this summer’s workshop, Anton Douthit-Boyd and Lauren Anderson. Former professional dancers, now extraordinary teachers, together their expertise covers everything from hip-hop to modern dance techniques, from the classical repertoire to what is at present the direction of dance in general—an amalgam of styles that is sought by contemporary dance companies world-wide.

Douthit-Boyd, a tall, African American from St. Louis says he didn’t begin dancing until he was 16. Though late to his art, his training was exceptional. The Joffrey Ballet, the North Carolina School for the Arts, the San Francisco Ballet, and the Dance Theatre of Harlem each summer provided him with new learning opportunities.

Invited to join the DTH, Douthit-Boyd quickly climbed the ranks and was named soloist there and four years later, with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, a principal dancer. Today he is the Co-Artistic Director of Dance at the Center of Creative Arts in St. Louis—and an imaginative choreographer.

Elizabeth Brooks, a 17-year-old in blue tights and pony-tail is swirling across the room. Classical attitude turns en dehors swoop into an off-balance chausee’, pas de bourree’ and a double pirouette into arabesque. She finishes with a saucy strut to the side of the room. Douthit-Boyd’s fast, playful, technically intimidating choreography combines nearly 300-year-old ballet vocabulary with contemporary movements that fit perfectly with “Quicksand,” the throb of electronica and percussion accompaniment he’s chosen for the piece he’s teaching the students.

Both Douthit-Boyd and Lauren Anderson agree that dancers today need not only the classical foundation and the ability to be worthy snowflakes, swans, and Sugarplum Fairies, but the breadth of training that will allow them to dance everywhere from Broadway to companies presenting works from Martha Graham and Shane Sparks. “No ballet company today is going to do only classical repertoire,” says Douthit-Boyd.

Yet in the spacious classroom nearby, six little girls are enjoying doing just that. And “enjoy” is a word that can encompass the corrections, the repetition, the teacher’s vaguely annoyed tone, the repeated correction, the thrice-more repetitions… and finally, the word they’ve all waited for — “Good!”

The girls have learned something — that things aren’t always perfect the first, or the fifth time. But the journey to “Good” is worth working for.

Lauren Anderson was trained from childhood at one of the nation’s oldest and most respected regional ballet companies, The Houston Ballet. Anderson spent 23 years dancing with the company, performing all of the major ballerina roles. She was one of the first and few African Americans ever promoted to the rank of principal dancer.

Having performed as guest artist with companies around the world, Anderson is now the Program Manager of Houston Ballet’s Education and Community Engagement Department. With the physique of a 20-year-old, Anderson is chatty, candid and very, very funny.

“Oh, I can still do 32 fouette’s,” she says of the daunting spinning turns. “But only on my right side…that’s the side I use for demonstrating. The other side is useless!” And when asked about the future of African Americans in ballet, she laughs, saying, “Well, pretty soon we’ll all be beige. We’ll just let evolution take care of that!”

Yet with seriousness, Anderson says that ballet has become more inclusive since she began to dance. “Now people of all colors, sizes, shapes, and ways of moving are included in dance’s tent.”

Both teachers can’t think of anything better.

The Tallahassee Ballet hopes to invite such diversity in an ambitious project in the near future.

Janet Pichard, CEO of the company says that Tyrone Brooks hopes to bring Lorraine Graves’ Creole Giselle, choreographed for the Dance Theatre of Harlem, to the Tallahassee stage for the Tallahassee Ballet’s 50th Anniversary season.